Wings-Leafs season-opening wrap-up

The Detroit Red Wings opened their defence of their 2008 Stanley Cup championship by raising a banner to the rafters, but, as the Detroit Free Press's Jon Paul Morosi reports, it was the Maple Leafs who were energized by the ceremony:

October 10, Detroit Free Press: The prelude to Thursday's season opener at Joe Louis Arena included a grand unveiling of the most hallowed hardware in hockey: seven trophies and the Stanley Cup. At present, they all belong to the Red Wings. Seen together, the chalices might have intimidated Detroit's younger opponent. But the Toronto Maple Leafs watched the entire ceremony. Their coach, Ron Wilson, wanted it that way.

"I thought that would give everybody a shot in the arm," Wilson said later. "I think it did."

The Red Wings celebrated best Thursday, but the Maple Leafs celebrated last. Toronto never trailed in a 3-2 victory that prompted smiles and fist bumps from Wilson and his lieutenants at the last horn.

"I can honestly say this is one of the more satisfying wins I've ever had," said Wilson, whose Washington Capitals were swept by Detroit in the '98 Cup finals. "No matter what kind of team -- and I've had some really great teams come into Detroit -- you're hanging on for dear life. If you can win a game in a shoot-out, you consider yourself lucky. For us, it was a special night. I'm really proud of everybody on the team. They were outstanding."
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"I can't find fault with anybody's game," Wilson said. "Everybody came ready to play. ... The young kids were outstanding. You see the Stanley Cup. You're playing the Stanley Cup champs, all the players you've watched on TV. Nobody was really intimidated. We had our mistakes and moments, but that's why we have a quality goalie."

That quality goalie agrees that his team stepped up:

"Everybody probably plays their best against them," said Toronto goaltender Vesa Toskala, who stopped 35 shots. "Every team knows how good they can be."

USA Today's Kevin Allen singled out Toskala's play in his recap...

October 10, USA Today: An error on the pregame score sheet listed Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala as the team's captain, meaning he would have been the second netminder in recent NHL history to be so designated.

Toronto coach Ron Wilson said it wasn't his mistake. "I wouldn't do that," he said. "Vesa has enough to worry about."

But the mistaken honor might have been appropriate Thursday, because Toskala was the flag carrier in the Maple Leafs' 3-2 win against the defending champion Detroit Red Wings on the night they raised the Stanley Cup banner to the rafters. Toskala made 35 saves, including a game-saving stop against Mikael Samuelsson with a little less than three minutes left.

"He is solid, so relaxed that he brings a calmness to our team," Toronto's Alexander Steen said.

The Red Wings, who got two goals from Tomas Holmstrom. are expected to make a run at repeating, and the Maple Leafs are projected to be among the NHL's worst teams. But Toronto took advantage of Detroit turnovers in building leads of 2-0 and 3-1 on goals by Pavel Kubina, Dominic Moore and Nikolai Kulemin.

The Globe and Mail's Tim Wharnsby says that the Leafs played their system perfectly--and they did, because it's the San Jose Sharks' system. It's a trapping defence combined with a forecheck that's designed to force turnovers along the half boards, and that played right into the Wings' lack of winger support for their defenders. It was turnover central last night:

October 10, Globe and Mail: The early season prognostications have touted the Wings to repeat as champs and that the Leafs didn't deserve to be on the same ice surface. But Toronto possibly caught the Wings dreaming about their dominating performance last spring -- and definitely surprised the titleholders by playing exactly the type of hockey new Leafs coach Ron Wilson espoused in the preseason.

The Leafs received strong play from goalie Vesa Toskala, stayed out of the penalty box, exhibited efficient puck movement out of their end and up the ice, used their speed to pressure the Wings into turnovers, blocked shots and held onto the lead against a potent offence. None of these essentials were evident in the preseason.

"It's going to take a lot of time for us to come together," said Toronto forward Dominic Moore, who not only scored in the second period to give his club a 2-0 lead, but blocked a shot from Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom in the final minute. "We have a lot of new faces. People are still getting comfortable with each other not on the ice but off the ice."

Wilson was coaching his first game with the team, and Toronto rookies Luke Schenn, Jonas Frogren, John Mitchell and Nikolai Kulemin were making their NHL debuts. Mikhail Grabovski, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and Mike Van Ryn were playing their first game for Toronto.
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The Leafs only gave Detroit three power-play opportunities, with the final chance coming after a delay of game infraction when Mayers accidentally cleared the puck over the glass with 30 seconds remaining.

Holmstrom scored in the second man-advantage situation for his second goal of the game to make it 3-2 with 10 minutes and 40 seconds remaining, but Toronto held off their opponents to protect the lead that Pavel Kubina, Moore and Kulemin gave their club with goals in each period.

The refs definitely had their whistles in their pockets, and the CBC's recap admits that the Sharks, I mean Leafs, played ugly hockey, and it worked:

October 9, CBC Sports: The Leafs took a conservative approach in the first period, playing a trapping style that frustrated the Detroit forwards.

The tactic paid off as the Leafs jumped out to a 1-0 lead with 26 seconds left in the period while on the power play. Detroit goalie Chris Osgood's horrendous clearing attempt landed on the stick of Toronto's Pavel Kubina who easily potted the puck home.

Toronto doubled its advantage at 15:04 of the second period thanks to some hard work by Dominic Moore. After battling for the puck behind the net, the Leafs forward fought his way out front and tucked the puck into the roof of the net on his third rebound-attempt off a point shot.

Detroit answered just over a minute later when Tomas Holmstrom fought off Leafs defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo in front of the net before tipping the puck between the pads of Toskala.

Toronto padded its lead at 7:25 of the third courtesy of Kulemin. The Russian forward, playing in his first ever NHL game, intercepted an errant Detroit pass [by Dan Cleary] at the Red Wings' blue-line and broke in alone on Osgood before beating him with a quick wrist shot.

The Leafs were exultant, and rightfully so:

"There's a lot of talk about us and how our team might not be very good this year," said Leafs forward John Mitchell. "We came out and showed we're going to be hard-working team. They're a really good team and we beat them."

The Leaf media was thrilled, too, with the debut of Luke Schenn, the joy Leaf fans probably felt, and the fact that they got to rub it in a bit. The Toronto Sun's Mike Zeisberger played up the "upset" angle:

October 10, Toronto Sun: Who could have predicted the Leafs -- recently referred to as almost "an expansion team" by general manager Cliff Fletcher -- would march into The Joe on the evening the Stanley Cup banner was raised and thoroughly spoil the Red Wings party?

Who would have figured this inexperienced team, one that had four players -- Luke Schenn, Jonas Frogren, John Mitchell and Nikolai Kulemin -- taking part in their first NHL games, would slay the champions. The final was 3-2 Toronto. No, that is not a misprint.
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Perhaps these Leafs don't have household names like Tucker, Sundin and McCabe, but, like Kulemin, some of these newcomers really showed what they can do.

Forward Niklas Hagman, for one, certainly has more offensive flair and skill than he is given credit for. Maybe his talent was masked by the stifling defensive system he was involved in with the Dallas Stars, but he really exhibited a more creative side of his game last night.

Centre Mikhail Grabovski displayed his significant upside while second-year forward Jiri Tlusty knitted together some good chances as well.

"I wouldn't say I was surprised at the outcome," Hagman said. "But I was a bit surprised that we were able to maintain our level of play the way we did throughout the whole game after our roller-coaster pre-season."

Ditto for the National Post's Bruce Arthur, who played it up to a crescendo:

October 10, National Post: Somewhere on Yonge Street, a parade began. It was early in the second period, as the Toronto Maple Leafs were forechecking the heck out of some team wearing Detroit's iconic red uniforms, that the thought floated into the air at Joe Louis Arena. Good lord, went the thought, after all the talk of rebuilding and re-working and beginning again, what if the Toronto Maple Leafs aren't awful after all?

The second thought, naturally, was this: 83 points and 11th place, here they come. But then, some of us are cynical about such things. Regardless, with Detroit's latest championship banner still settling into place above them, the Toronto Maple Leafs opened their season with a 3-2 win over the defending champs. Toronto got lucky - they dodged about a dozen bullets in the final five minutes, Matrix-style, and Detroit hit a post and a crossbar in the first twenty - but they also played fast, relatively smart and almost penalty-free hockey.

And even once the Wings woke up, Toronto's hard-fought walls failed to fully collapse. By the blade of a skate, it all held.
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Kind of a special night? Detroit's current ad campaign includes the slogan, "We'll be satisfied when we run out of rafter space," which you can get away with when you've won four titles since 1997 and added Marian Hossa in the off-season. The latest banner prompted a regal pre-game ceremony: First, most of the organization was introduced and paraded out onto the ice onto a Wings-red carpet. Then came the Detroit players, chopping along on their skates until they stood in a line, a Red Army.

The trophies various Wings had won - the Selke, the Norris, the President's, the Clarence Campbell, the Lady Byng, the Conn Smythe, CFL Coach of the Year and Best Supporting Actor - stood in spotlights around centre ice, on podiums. Finally, Nicklas Lidstrom skated over and placed the Stanley Cup on a podium of its own, and left it alone in the spotlight. The building thundered. The 11th championship banner in franchise history was carried out by icons such as Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay, then raised to the rafters, slow and majestic. The building roared.

And as promised, the Leafs watched, crammed into their bench in two tiers like it was a class picture. Which, in a way, was entirely appropriate. This year, after all, school is supposed to be in session. Lesson one: Championship hangovers exist. Detroit - playing Henrik Zetterberg on their second line - looked like a lesser team for long stretches.

The National Post's Michael Triakos took up the chorus...

October 10, National Post: It was supposed to be a lesson in humility. Prior to their regular-season opener Thursday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs were forced to watch as the Detroit Red Wings were honoured for last season's Stanley Cup championship run. Banners were raised, players were applauded and trophies were on display.

For a franchise that has gone 41 years without winning the Stanley Cup, it seemed like a cruel and unusual way to start the National Hockey League season. Of course, the real anguish would begin moments later when the puck was dropped. Not for the Leafs, though, for the Red Wings, who were upset 3-2 by a team that is not expected to make the playoffs.

Triakos also praises the Leafs' defence:

To the Leafs' credit, Toskala did not face the same volume and quality of shots that he did on most nights last season.

Toronto, which blocked 11 shots, had vowed to pay more attention to defence. And though Detroit's snipers still created chances, they had to work for every one.

"It's the way we're going to have to play," said Dominic Moore, who scored the Leafs' second goal. "If you try to keep up with [Pavel] Datsyuk and Zetterberg, you can't be flat-footed."

The Toronto Star's Paul Hunter praised the composure of the Leafs' young players...

October 10, Toronto Star: Impressive, too, about the Leafs was that the players kept the night in perspective. Afterwards, the company line was the old chestnut about "enjoying the win for a couple of hours and then getting back to work."

But it was special, especially with those four players making their NHL debuts. One of them, Kulemin, scored what proved to be the winner midway through the third period - it put the Leafs ahead 3-1 at the time - when he picked off a pass just outside the Detroit blue line, went in alone and showed no rookie jitters as he buried a shot past Osgood.

In his first NHL game, the 22-year-old Russian had his first NHL goal and it was a beauty. Teenaged defenceman Luke Schenn was also playing his first game, as was defenceman Jonas Frogren, who picked up an assist, and Mitchell. All of them acquitted themselves well.

Schenn appeared mature beyond his years. Even when he looked like he might be in trouble against the high-powered Wings, he settled down and made the safe play. There was no panic in his game.

This time too, unlike last year or in exhibition play, the Leafs didn't blow the lead late in the game, though Vesa Toskala had to make a couple of good saves to preserve the two points.

"He's the man," said forward Alex Steen. "He's so solid. He's very relaxed. He has that calmness about him that calms the rest of the team."

While the Star's Damien Cox adds insult to injury by praising the Leafs' GM, Cliff Fletcher:

October 10, Toronto Star: A beaming Cliff Fletcher walked down the corridor outside the Maple Leafs dressing room last night, awash in the unmistakably sweet scent of victory. It was probably as pleasurable a feeling as the Silver Fox has had in the game in a long time.

In a stunning upset on opening night of the NHL's North American schedule - the league prefers to let European customers sample the product first, it seems - the Leafs shocked the Stanley Cup defending-champion Detroit Red Wings 3-2 in their home rink on the same night the Wings proudly raised a new banner for winning it all last season.

"We stayed in the game by skating with them," Fletcher said enthusiastically. "It was a reward for hard work and an incentive to keep at it."

The Leafs have to hope that the stunning victory won't be the highlight of a season many believe will be very difficult. But if that turns out to be the case, man, it was a beaut.

Not only did the Leafs build a 3-1 lead aided by two horrible Detroit giveaways and make it stand up, they exhibited a new look beyond the different faces Fletcher has brought in. Minus Mats Sundin, Bryan McCabe and Darcy Tucker, the Leafs looked much quicker as a group and more cohesive as a collective.
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Drinking it all in from the press box and absorbing a hefty barrage of nasty heckling from Leaf fans at The Joe for his trouble, was deposed GM John Ferguson Jr., who now works as a scout for the San Jose Sharks.

Fletcher's a loon, and the Wings were pancake flat, but they reiterated that it was Toronto that took momentum from the Wings' banner-raising ceremony to NHL.com's John Kreiser...

October 10, NHL.com: "I have no problem applauding the Red Wings for what they've done because we'd like to get there ourselves," Wilson said.

Leafs forward Jason Blake thought watching the celebration gave his team a boost.

"The ceremony was great," Blake said. "I think it inspired our young guys."

Wings coach Mike Babcock would have none of it, with "it" meaning his team's play...

"Wake up!" Detroit coach Babcock shouted at his players during a third-period break.

They did. The Leafs' 3-1 lead lasted less than two minutes before Holmstrom scored his second of the night at 9:20 with Matt Stajan in the penalty box for high sticking. The Wings poured it on while looking for the tie. Toskala's best late save came on a streaking Mikael Samuelsson with three minutes to play. The Wings got a power play when Jamal Mayers flipped the puck over the glass with 30 seconds left and was penalized for delay of game, but the Leafs hung on.

"I don't accept that as any reason for anything," Babcock said. "The bottom line is, we found out what level the NHL is played at tonight. They were willing to compete harder and win more battles than we were."

Babcock positively growled in the Canadian Press's recap:

October 9, Canadian Press: `First off, give Toronto credit,'' said Wings coach Mike Babcock. ``They were quicker than us. They worked hard. They wanted it.''

And he doesn't think that had anything to do with the distraction of the pre-game ceremony.

``I don't accept that,'' said Babcock. ``Bottom line is we found out tonight what level the NHL is played at.''

Chris Osgood gave the Leafs credit for playing them hard:

``They have a better team than last year,'' said Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood. ``Some people think just because you switched older players out in Toronto your team is going to be worse. It's not the case, they have some good young players on their team.

``They really forced the issue on us and forechecked well. They held us in our end quite a bit. And that's off determination and how fired up they were to play us. We're going to have a lot of games like that this year where teams get excited and fired up to play us. So we have to be ready. That's the way it's going to be.''

And this little tidbit is worth noting:

Detroit and Toronto each have 274 all-time wins against each other. They've played to 93 ties.

Larry Lage's Associated Press recap is similar to the CP's, and he notes that even Nicklas Lidstrom wasn't surprised by the effort put forth by the Leafs:

October 9, Associated Press: Detroit is on a quest to be the NHL's first to repeat it did it 1998, but quickly found out how difficult it will be to simply win during the regular season.

"We're going to see a lot of teams playing us like that, working real hard defensively," Lidstrom said. "That's what we're going to see throughout the season."

And ESPN's sidebar offers up a few unsettling statistics:

• Tomas Holmstrom scored two goals Thursday. He had just two two-goal games all of last season.

• Dominic Moore scored in a season opener for the first time in his career.

• Chris Osgood lost a season opener for the first time since the 2003-04 season when he lost to Phoenix Coyotes as a member of the St. Louis Blues.

• The Maple Leafs won their season opener for the first time since 2002.

October 10, Detroit News: The Maple Leafs took a 1-0 lead on defenseman Pavel Kubina's power-play goal late in the first period following an interference penalty against Tomas Kopecky.

Brad Stuart was unable to clear the puck from the Wings' zone, but he battled with two Toronto forwards in the corner. Jiri Tlusty kept the pressure on for the Maple Leafs

The puck finally came loose and Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall couldn't locate it near his skates. At that point, Osgood reached out and attempted to clear it into the corner to his left.

Kubina, however, had snuck in toward the net and the puck came right to him in the slot. Osgood had no chance of recovering to make the save.

"I was going to poke it and then their guy was kind of there," Osgood said. "I didn't want to give it to him. I went to move it and everybody was yelling at me. It slid off my stick into the wrong spot. I know I should never go to that side because I'm not over there. It's a mistake I never make. I've got to look before I think about moving it."

That was one of an astounding 19 giveaways, and while Dye notes that Dan Cleary and Johan Franzen's shots found iron, Lidstrom told the Detroit News's Ted Kulfan that it was the Leafs who had "jam" around the Wings' net:

"Whether the puck ended up in our net, or we spent more time in our zone, but we had too many costly turnovers they capitalized on," Lidstrom said.

Kulfan files a game report, notes that Darren McCarty's groin injury is severe enough that he may be out for two or three weeks, and Dye's recap notes that the Wings were all too aware of the fact that the Leafs beat them by not only turning over the puck and going to the net, but also establishing a cycle:

October 10, Detroit News: "They cycled us real well," Wings goalie Chris Osgood said. "They kept us out of their end a lot. That's the key. It's like football. If we're not in their end, we can't score. That's their best defense, to keep it in our end."

Osgood expects opponents to be at their best all season against the Wings.

"That's what the hangover is," he said. "It's not us. Toronto's an improved team. They've got a real fast team. They were in our end quick."

The turnovers were certainly the most alarming aspect of this game for the Wings. The worst one, an errant pass by Dan Cleary near Detroit's blue line, set up Toronto's winning goal.

It wasn't just a couple of the Wings making these miscues. Five players committed two giveaways, and nine others had one.

"If you continue to do that, teams are going the other way and we're spending too much time in our own end," captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "You're going to be tired by playing defense all the time."

The Detroit Free Press's George Sipple made due note of the fact that Mike Babcock took no prisoners in his post-game comments:

October 10, Detroit Free Press: "Bottom line is we found out what level the NHL is played at," Babcock said. "They were willing to compete harder, won more races, won more battles than we did."

Goaltender Chris Osgood, who made 26 saves, didn't want to use the ceremonies an excuse, either.

"That's separate from the game," he said. "It was only 15 minutes. It wasn't as long as (others) have been before. It was what we expected."
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Babcock said Holmstrom and Datsyuk helped get things going, "but we didn't have enough guys going -- that's the bottom line. I thought the goalie gave us a chance. Other than that, we didn't have enough people going."

The Windsor Star's Dave Waddell didn't pull any punches in his recap, either:

October 10, Windsor Star: Watching the Detroit Red Wings raise their championship banner, the Toronto Maples Leafs started the season Thursday as close to the Stanley Cup as they have been in 41 years.

The Leafs aren't expected to get any closer in the foreseeable future, but for one night they looked like champions in well-deserved 3-2 win over Detroit.

After enjoying their banner-raising ceremony, the Wings were simply lousy.

Much of the credit for that goes to the Leafs for playing a smart, energetic game. Toronto gave the Wings little time on the puck and Detroit didn't show enough initiative to get inside on the Leafs or just about anyplace else.

October 10, Windsor Star: "We know we have to be 100 per cent every night. If we don't work hard, we'll not win many games."

Though the Wings were mostly kept to the outside of Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala, they did rattle the pipes twice in the span of the minute.

However, the game's first goal would go to Toronto on the power play.

It was a prime example of the lack of attention to detail the Wings showed throughout the game.
Wings netminder Chris Osgood inexplicably tried to one-hand the puck across the face of his goal instead of easily smothering it with his glove. Osgood's casual clearance went right to Pavel Kubina, who slammed it in the net from eight feet at 19:34.

Marian Hossa may have summarized the Wings' play best, as the Macomb Daily's Bruce MacLeod notes:

October 10, Macomb Daily: "For the next game, we have to be ready right from the beginning," said Marian Hossa, who was a plus-1 in his first game as a Red Wing. "We didn't create many chances from the beginning. As the game went on, we created more chances."

It was another Detroit turnover, however, that led to the winning goal.

Leaving his own zone, Dan Cleary attempted to hit Valtteri Filppula with a pass up the middle. But 22-year-old Nikolai Kulemin, playing in his first NHL game, intercepted the pass and was in alone on Osgood from the blue line. Kulemin's shot got past Osgood's blocker for a 3-1 Toronto lead with 12:35 on the third-period clock.

"Tonight they were quicker than we were," said Detroit coach Mike Babcock. "They made us turn over a lot of pucks. We were hard-headed about it. This game is fair. The team that works the hardest wins most nights."

The Detroit News's Bob Wojnowski did see positives in the Wings' loss:

October 10, Detroit News: The Leafs skated hard. The Wings were sloppy. And the Stanley Cup made a final appearance, then went home. The Wings are the reigning champs, which means plenty around here but nothing from this point forward.

All they have to do now is do it all over again, and it will be as tough as ever, no matter how many nice adjectives they've earned.

"We saw the banner and we realized how hard it is to win," goalie Chris Osgood said. "And then we played the game and realized how hard it is again. They were fired up to play us, and the reality is, we're gonna have 81 more games like that."

While Hossa wasn't great, Babcock liked his moxie:

"I really like that Hossa wants to win so bad," Babcock said. "The other thing I like is, he probably thinks he's the best player on the team. Pavel (Datsyuk) probably thinks he's the best player on the team. (Zetterberg) probably figures he's the best player on the team. They're all forwards and that competitiveness is really good. Plus, I think you get hungrier the more you win."

The Wings certainly weren't at their best on opening night, and they offered no excuses. Their passing was off and the Leafs' fuel light was fully on.

The challenge rises again for the Wings, who are a terrific attraction and a needed distraction in Detroit right now. Thank goodness they're back. We'll be watching closely, and so will every team they play.

That's the theory, and while Nicklas Lidstrom said that raising a banner "never gets old," a guy who didn't play, Chris Chelios, provided a reminder of what toughness really means, as DetroitRedWings.com's Michael Caples noted:

Yes, the new banner went up. Yes, Dallas Drake and Dominik Hasek were back in town. And yes, the Stanley Cup made an appearance. But to me, the best part was the eruption that occurred when Steve Yzerman stepped onto the red carpet as the Wings front office was introduced to the sell-out crowd. As former Red Wings great Johnny Wilson told me earlier, "the fans here in Detroit are wonderful; they put all their athletes here on a pedestal." And if there was a real pedestal to measure with, Yzerman's would tower right next to all the other greats this city has been fortunate enough to watch over eight decades of Red Wings' hockey.

Honorable mention goes to Chris Chelios, for skating out, with a broken leg, in his full equipment for the banner ceremony. Talk about toughness; Cheli's a poster boy for the physical side of hockey.

The Wings would be wise to find some grit, fast, and get back-to-back wins in Ottawa and Carolina's home-openers to quell the "Stanley Cup hangover" boo-birds and set the foundation for the superb start they need.